REVIEW: PART TIME

The Debut feature film from director Stryker Spurlock has a whole lot of nothing going on. Which is not as harsh as it sounds, as that's basically the point of the film. Shot in black and white in a bleak suburban landscape, it was reminiscent to me of "Northwestern," the film-that- was-never-made by director Mark Borchardt of "American Movie" fame.

Our protagonist is Casey (Casey Paulsen) who is essentially going through the motions, shuffling through suburban hell with a dead-end job, an unhappy family life, and pretty much no hope or prospects for anything better.

The story mostly plays out in semi-related vignettes that stress the banal nature living and working in Nowheresville, USA, interspersed with stock footage of turn-of-the-twentieth-century America and bizarre scenes of "The Lord and Lady" (Christian Lawrence & Meredith Hopping) and well, that's about it.

I get what Spurlock was going for here, but it needed more polish for it to really come off. Truth be told, I liked the concept a fair amount, but I was let down by the execution. Casey did not have more than one nuance to his character beyond complete apathy and depression, but the actor carried it off believably well, so definite kudos to Paulsen. The rest of the cast, well, let's just say the quality varied.

On the technical side, it was a serviceable picture with adequate cinematography and adequate (for a no-budget indie) sound. And hell, in the world of truly no-budget indie film, sometimes adequate is above and beyond. With a sharper, more engaging story, we could have maybe had something here.

Overall, while a commendable effort, both for thinking outside the box and completing a feature film, this felt very much like a first-time feature filmmaker's attempt at an arthouse film. That in itself is not a bad thing, but I think it takes a fair bit more seasoning as a creator to make something like PART TIME really work. I am curious to see what director Stryker Spurlock can cook up for his next effort, with a little more experience behind him.